Different types of tea definitely have different weights. This was a little thing I put together to demonstrate why I use a scale, when I am doing a formal review or working with an unfamiliar tea (each little pile is 1 gram of that particular tea):

Fortunately Sakura Sencha is a good casual drinker that is also relatively inexpensive. As you move up the cost scale and begin brewing at 1:1 ratio ... you may begin to think, hmmmm, 5 ounces is perfect.

I don't have a very discerning sense of taste so I may be perfectly happy with cheaper teas.

A few years ago I had a diet soda habit. I loved the buzz that was provided by a 20 ounce bottle from the soda machine in the office. The cost got up to $1.30 before I stopped. I view things as a "cost per drink" perspective with that.....and the prices at Star Bucks as benchmarks.

Last week I went to O-Cha and priced one of their most expensive teas at a cost of about $3 a cup. A Star Buck's coffee drinker would be grateful for that price

So, though 5 teaspoons per cup is a lot for one cup of tea, that 5 teaspoons will let me have 3 cups.

You are not measuring something correctly there, a typical teaspoon weighs about 4-5 grams. You would only need one heaping teaspoon to make that pot of tea. A regular kitchen scale is not accurate enough for this, you need something that will measure tenth of a gram. You can find those cheaply on Ebay.

A teaspoon of what? A teaspoon is a volume measurement. Grams are weight (mass, actually). A teaspoon of gold weighs more than a teaspoon of baking soda. Granted, we're talking about tea here, but there's going to be a huge range.

You are not measuring something correctly there, a typical teaspoon weighs about 4-5 grams. You would only need one heaping teaspoon to make that pot of tea. A regular kitchen scale is not accurate enough for this, you need something that will measure tenth of a gram. You can find those cheaply on Ebay.

Hi Kevangogh,

Thank you for posting. Your measurement seems to make more sense to me and I will be happier if you are proven right. More cups of tea for the same money spent.

You are not measuring something correctly there, a typical teaspoon weighs about 4-5 grams. You would only need one heaping teaspoon to make that pot of tea. A regular kitchen scale is not accurate enough for this, you need something that will measure tenth of a gram. You can find those cheaply on Ebay.

Hi Kevangogh,

I am going to contact O-Cha.com and ask them how much a western teaspoon of their Sakura Sencha is supposed to weigh. I will post their answer here.

Using a .05 gram resolution digital scale, I weighed the little Sakura Sencha I have here from O-Cha using what I consider typical Western teaspoon (pretty old silver teaspoon that I actually use each time I measure tea).

In a related note, I think I know why there seems to be so many differing measurements of grams per teaspoon of sakura sencha. It likely has to do with the shape of the teaspoon. Sencha tends to have long twisted leaves, which if you have a very round and deep teaspoon ( similar to quite a few measuring teaspoons), the leaves might not fit in there very nice, so less leaves seem to "fill" the space. While a teaspoon that is in just about every single western house hold would be flatter and wider, which would give a lot of room for the leaves to lay down and fill the volume better.

I measured out Yutaka Midori and it's about 3.5 grams her full teaspoon. I used a Japanese teapoon which is very slightly smaller than an American teaspoon. Also, Yutaka Midori will be more dense that Sakura Sencha so my guess is that will be close to 3.0 grams (I don't have any open at the moment).

3.5 grams or 3.0 grams, it's not going to make that much of a difference. Let's say it's 3.0 grams.

Then you use the reference for that tea. That said, it's also not going to make a huge difference but in this case let's say .6 grams per ounce (180 ml).

6 x .6 = 3.6 grams.

Since a teaspoon is close to 3.0 grams, just take one teaspoon and make sure it's heaping and you should be good to go. Error on the side of too much tea over too little. Your brew temperature and how long you brew it will make it or break it.

AdamMY wrote:In a related note, I think I know why there seems to be so many differing measurements of grams per teaspoon of sakura sencha. It likely has to do with the shape of the teaspoon. Sencha tends to have long twisted leaves, which if you have a very round and deep teaspoon ( similar to quite a few measuring teaspoons), the leaves might not fit in there very nice, so less leaves seem to "fill" the space. While a teaspoon that is in just about every single western house hold would be flatter and wider, which would give a lot of room for the leaves to lay down and fill the volume better.

I had a similar thought when I did my weighing. I passed up my circular teaspoon in favor of an oval shallow one.

Using a .05 gram resolution digital scale, I weighed the little Sakura Sencha I have here from O-Cha using what I consider typical Western teaspoon (pretty old silver teaspoon that I actually use each time I measure tea).